Peafowl colors and type

[deerman]

Lot of good points here.

Emeralds were in the past any with 3/4 or higher blood . Now people call ones with green chest emeralds. Point I was making Emerald Does not mean alot unless you know the %. As a 5/8 can have the green chest. Think thats a good reason to no longer use emerald, just like blackshoulder needs dropped also. IMO

Spalding will not breed true, even chicks in the same clutch will be different

Guess you really need to know your seller, and make sure they keep good records. Also how they do with their MATH

People raise their birds in large flight ,or free range for sure dont know %.
Same with mixing colors, you wil not know what colors birds are split too.

Point I was making on Emerald, was because I have seen people selling emerald chicks ,from pens were all birds running together even blues, think some use the emerald, because in the past they sold for more.

Spalding are just spalding to me, and the greens colors without being split to another color, have no place here. If I want greens, I raise greens, but I do like the other colors in spaldings.

 

[spectrumranch]

Another point to mention, as long as we are on spaldings. (man I always want to put a "u" in there)

Spaldings are more winter hardy than greens. BUT the higher percentage-- the less winter hardy spaldings are. Our white spauldings seemed especially sensitive to the cold.

We have some higher quality Spauldings that we move into heated barns for the winter. Also remember we are in Wisconsin and South Dakota so our winter temps get pretty cold.

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Yes for sure the high % will need heat in our northern winters, dont feel bad I still place a "U" in spalding also.

Emerald, Oaten, and Blackshoulder, are 3 terms that will be hard to stop. Just like people calling all peafowl "Peacocks" See peacock eggs for sale, know mine dont lay

Then there is the tail, how many people sell peacock tail feathers, never seen a tail feather with a eye in it yet.

I aint any better, I still catch myself using these terms. Trying to change, but its hard.

 

[GardienneWings]

Quote:
We move them into a 12x12 insulated stall in the winter but leave the door open to the screen door except at night. So it gets to about freezing but not much lower. We have not had to provided any heat with the winters we have had recently, and I think could get by with just the heated, carpet covered roosts even in a cold winter here.

Norm claims to only use heated roosts even with his pure stock in Ithaca, NY. He has photos of them walking out in the snow (and I mean SNOW! Not the 2" we get here occasionally

)

Val

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We have an insulated brooder barn that ours will have access to, we are probably slightly warmer than you are. We are in Eastern NC about an hour from the ocean. Tell me about the heated roosts please? I am thinking you just use a heat tape under the carpet?

Steve

 

[deerman]

Steve , here is a link for the heated roost. You should not have much trouble even with Pure Greens. Main trouble is with toes getting frostbite. Keeping them out of cold winds.

Craig raise pure greens he is in Indiana.

http://www.hopkinslivestock.com/building_a_heated_roost.htm

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
That's about what I figured on the roost heat, that's easy to do. Now it has me back thinking that I should have went higher % green or went pure. It's pretty mild here temp wise - rare days it stays below freezing all day- teens at night sometimes, low teens makes the news, upper single digits makes from page news. I can't keep them inside all winter but if they can go inside a house and get warm, would they?

Thanks Deerman

 

[melissa508]

Since we're on the subject of spaldings..heres some pics & an odd looking one that i hatched that looked nothing like the others-

I was using a camera that washed out the color..so they would be much brighter in real life.

Its the one in front..note the bronzey color in the chest & neck. The other one pictured is from the same mating. All the chix i hatched always looked the same except one time i got this different one..I couldnt figure out why. This was also a litter of all males..weird..but nice.

For your viewing please..heres some other pics.

(Whatever I bred this java to, the chix always looked high percentage..he is pure java)

I wish i had better pics, i never knew what any of the non-java or spalding females were.

 

[deerman]

A thread we had going about emeralds....wonder what some of the new members think of emeralds.

 

[Pavo Royale]

Emerald is a color, and it is green. So I am fine with calling a spalding that has that beautiful green neck an emerald, but think it should not (or no longer) be a term to describe a specific breed of peafowl. This term has caused more confusion than it is worth. The true value of a spalding bird is the % of green blood it has and people who expect to get top dollar for spaldings should back them up with records (as rudimentary as they may be) instead of the term emerald. Thanks, Mitch